deadbyaprilfandomcom-20200215-history
2010-07-01 - Kuriren Interview
A couple of hours prior to Dead by April's concert at Kirunafestivalen, the Swedish newspaper ''Norrbotten-Kuriren interviewed Dead by April and it was published on July 05, 2010. Entire Dead by April was present for the interview but only Johan, Jimmie and Zandro are represented in spoken words. Topics they covered were among others Pontus leaving the band and the bands former hype. Script : The interview was done in Swedish and is therefore translated into English. '''Dead by April - with chorus missiles as weapons When Gothenburg band Dead by April played the Kiruna festival's main stage there was only one missing cog - the former singer Pontus Hjelm. He decided to quit the hit group in April (appropriately enough) to only be a songwriter. "He was never that interested in being on stage. In a way, it was I who forced him to join the band from the beginning. And it was difficult for him because he had real stage fright", says Jimmie Strimmell, one of the two singers. In a sense Pontus Hjelm is still a part of Dead by April; he still write songs. A new album is underway and it is hoped it will be ready when it's time for the 2011 summer festivals. When I met the gang at the Kiruna hotel Ferrum's foyer Hjelm's absence was obvious, but the guys picked up gladly on substitute Zandro Santiago in a sympathetic manner. Anything to get him to feel comfortable in the new role. Santiago did not experience the success during last year's Piteå Dansar och Ler as Dead By April had been booked for the second biggest stage where the capacity was not enough. "For us it felt like the festival shut down half the town. It was absolutely crazy", says Johan Olsson, guitar and scream. Hundreds of festival goers missed their new favorite band (though this summer they'll return to the PDOL). In Trollhättan something similar event took place and that time a few concert goers was injured. Now it has been a year and they are no longer a surprising newcomer. Organizers have grasped how popular the band actually is. "It was really only last summer we could live on that hype. People expects that the next album will be very commercial. I think it will be commercial but people will probably be nonplussed once the record comes out. Parts of it becomes as heavy as Meshugga and other chill as Lady Gaga. We aim to become more dynamic and explore the extremes", says Johan Olsson. The transition from playing on small stages to play on very large stages is not a completely painless process. Everything has gone so fast with Dead by April and suddenly the band plays on the big stages where the stage show is important. "There really is nowhere to hide when the scene is so big and open", says Santiago. "Especially not when it's as bright as it is in Kiruna", laughs Johan Olsson. 'Q: Are you trying to develop stage show to make it more advanced? ' "Sure, we want to do new things. But we do not get involved with pyro because everyone and-ra does. It's hard to do things better than In Flames and the chances are that you just look childish. We want to make the show good only with members of the band. It is not our thing to hide behind a light show", says Johan Olsson. When the new record is here one can expect an ingenious launch online. Dead by April is exceptionally good at utilizing social media. When the band is at the Kebne scene in Kiruna they took a photo of the audience and layed out the picture on Facebook. A clever marketing of their band - in the middle of the concert. "We also tries to answer as many mail's as we can, but we are not as active online as we were in the beginning. Now we get 5,000 emails and before we got possibly 50. So it has become more difficult to manage the web", says Johan Olsson.